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A live play, an endless search committee
My husband and I attended a performance of A Salesman in China at the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario this week. The play, set in 1983, is based on the true story of the American playwright Arthur Miller traveling to China…
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On the death of Grand Chief Cathy Merrick
Last Friday, Cathy Merrick, Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, collapsed while speaking to reporters outside the Law Courts building in Winnipeg. She was taken to hospital but did not survive. She was 62. Prior to serving as…
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Spelling bees and air shows
For me, Toronto’s Canadian National Exhibition is a touchpoint, reminding me of my childhood, and a sign that summer is coming to an end. When I was a child, my parents, siblings and I would come to the CNE, as…
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Binding and loosing in an age of division
For the past three years, the United States has been my home, and in the U.S., division is impossible to ignore. Liberals on the left, conservatives on the right. Of course, Canada is not immune to these divisions, and neither…
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Let’s agree to disagree
In my Zimbabwean African culture, elders are so revered that they are never seen as doing anything wrong. It is considered very rude to argue with one’s elders, even when we are certain that they are incorrect. Young people must…
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Can’t we all just get along?
Are you losing hope in the possibility of everyone getting along? Division in the church is nothing new for me. I grew up in a harsh, conservative fundamentalist church that judged everybody. Especially liberal Christians. In my early 20s, I…
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Big tent, small centre
Here in British Columbia—the West of the West, where West and true East meet in North America—we sometimes tend to look more toward the traditionalist faith of the church in Asia than to the progressive, whiter, older Mennonite lands of eastern…
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Readers Write: September 2024
Questions about MCC ethos I appreciate Canadian Mennonite’s reporting on the open letter from terminated Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) workers (“Involuntary,” July 2024). Well done. When I first read the open letter, I was distraught, but I shouldn’t have been; the appeal…
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Readers Write: August 2024
Responses to ‘Involuntary’ From resigned MCC’ers For 17 of the past 32-plus years, we worked with Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) in four countries. MCC was instrumental in forming the values we try to live by today. We are grateful for…
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From fresh cabbage to ‘shovel-ready industrial land’
Categories: OpinionOn an average day, approximately 320 acres of Ontario farmland are lost to development and, apparently, now it’s our turn. This spring, the farmers across the road from the 100-acre farm where I grew up, a 20-minute drive west of…
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Living my land acknowledgement
I was nervous the first time I offered a land acknowledgement in church, wondering how people would respond. Afterwards, one person thanked me while another questioned whether a land acknowledgement had any place in a worship service. I took the…
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Rubble and land in Ethiopia
Note: The following is an excerpt from a prayer letter/newsletter distributed by Joanne De Jong , a Mennonite Church Canada Witness worker in Ethiopia, on August 8, 2024. I’ve been so sad. While we had our coffee this morning, under a…
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I don’t believe in the Olympic Dream
I like watching the Olympics, but I see only overblown virtuism and commercialized pretense in the notion that the games bring together the global village in a glow of equality and peace that will somehow contribute to the betterment of…
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Living in peculiarity, embracing Anabaptism
In the history of Ethiopia, Christianity was first introduced into the royal court around the 4th century, gradually spreading among the common people from there. Unlike the spread of Christianity in the Greco-Roman world, which remained confined to the lower…
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Making connections
Hello to everyone from the new Mennonite Church Alberta moderator. I believe that who I am influences my approach to serving as moderator, so let me introduce myself. I am, first and foremost, a follower of Christ. Beyond that, I…
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A view to worldly culture
“You’ve given in to the culture.” I’ve heard this plenty as a Christian – in churches, schools, on social media. From what I can make of it, it is ultimately an allegation of compromise or failure. One Christian party charges…
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Pressed into the ground
“It’s nice to get to choose our humility,” my father reflected recently. Sometimes, however, we don’t get to. What do we do when we feel forced to be humble—what we often call humiliated? Our dictionary says the words humble, humility, humiliate,…
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The path to peace includes Hamas
Categories: OpinionI am not, and have never been, a supporter or apologist for Hamas. I am a Christian, and Hamas is an avowedly Muslim organization. I am a pacifist, and Hamas believes in armed struggle as the path to liberation. Yet,…
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The urgency of untidy joy
I’ve been thinking again about joy. I know this theme is counterintuitive. The scope of violence and injustice in the world is crushing right now, both far away and close to home, and it’s proving chronic in ways that undermine efforts…
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Open to the Spirit
Just over a year ago, I invited readers of Canadian Mennonite to share their Holy Spirit experiences with me (April 6, 2023). I was pleasantly surprised by the response. I was moved and encouraged by the messages I received. Thank you to…
